Ex-Financial Times Journalist Tom Foremski @ the Collision of Technology and Media

Newswatch 12.19.07: DoubleClick deal approval soon

[News.com] The new version sports a wide range of improvements over the first test version of the browser upgrade, most notably plugs for memory leaks, security fixes, and a download manager that includes improvements previously available only through plug-ins.

[ABC] Google will pay the government $3 million and Yahoo will pay $7.5 million for their participation in advertising online gambling on their search engines. Microsoft will pay $21 million. As part of the settlement, Microsoft will also provide $9 million to the International Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

[WashPost] As expected, Google has applied to participate in the auction. A handful cable companies, such as Cox, and smaller Internet companies, such as XPressWeb, are planning to bid. Big phone companies have traditionally been the main players in spectrum auctions. But AT&T and Verizon Wireless, who are expected to square off against the newcomers, have to fix some paperwork glitches or provide more information before the FCC accepts their applications.

[PCW] The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has won a lawsuit against the operators of TorrentSpy.com, with the judge ruling in favor of the MPAA because the Web site operators tampered with evidence. In a ruling that could have implications for the privacy of Web site users, Judge Florence-Marie Cooper of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, ruled that TorrentSpy has infringed MPAA copyrights in a default judgment against the operators of the site.

[Bloomberg] The five-member Federal Trade Commission is poised to approve the transaction after reviewing complaints by Microsoft Corp. and AT&T Inc. that the combination would harm competition for Internet advertisements, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

[InfoWeek] Windows XP SP3 Release Candidate offers a number of enhancements over the current version of the OS. It includes all updates issued since Windows XP Service Pack 2 was released in 2004, and some new elements. Among them: A feature called Network Access Protection that's borrowed from the newer Windows Vista operating system. NAP automatically validates a computer's "health," ensuring that it's free of bugs and viruses, before allowing it access to a network.